


“you’re warm.”

by clickingkeyboards



Series: one hundred ways to say 'i love you' [70]
Category: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens
Genre: Attempt at Humor, F/F, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, a short study into how they all interact i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:07:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23559592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clickingkeyboards/pseuds/clickingkeyboards
Summary: Hazel goes behind Daisy's back to invite Amina El Maghrabi to a meet-up during an Exeat weekend, and Daisy is not pleased. A short and fun study into how they all interact.Canon EraWritten for the seventieth prompt in the '100 ways to say "I love you"' prompt list by p0ck3tf0x on Tumblr.
Relationships: Alexander Arcady/Hazel Wong, Amina El Maghrabi/Daisy Wells
Series: one hundred ways to say 'i love you' [70]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533164
Kudos: 33





	“you’re warm.”

“Here’s the  _ thing _ , Daisy,” I say, and she actually swats my hand away.

“Hazel, I swear on my fingerprint kit that if you don’t shut up, I will write to Alexander Arcady  _ right now _ and confess on your behalf,” she threatens, jabbing a slender finger into my face. “I do  _ not _ like Amina El Maghrabi, I  _ will never  _ like Amina El Maghrabi, and I  _ have never  _ liked Amina El Maghrabi. And do not be so ridiculous as to suggest such a thing!”

With a shrug and a sigh, I stretch myself out on the sofa at Uncle Felix’s and turn back to my copy of  _ Dracula _ . It’s an exeat weekend in mid-November, and we are all hungry for the holidays already. “Suit yourself, Daisy. Pity that you don’t like her, considering that Kitty and I went to all the trouble to invite her to hang out with us when we go out next week.”

At this, Daisy  _ properly _ goes bright red. In a fraction of a second, she shoots from composure to red-faced fluster as she dives at me on my end of the sofa. I shriek as she jabs her fingers into my sides, pushing at her and yelling, “STOP TICKLING ME, DAISY! PLEASE!”

She cackles even louder, like a witch straight from fiction, and moves to tickling my neck. Uncle Felix sticks his head into the room, holding a coffee in his hand and a newspaper under his arm. “Alright, girls?” he asks in an amused tone.

“Hi, Uncle Felix,” Daisy says in a chipper tone, before launching right back into tickling me. “Nothing to see here!”

He scoffs and walks off. “If you say so, Daisy!”

I shriek for his help but he just laughs and makes a show of striding off.

* * *

Due to what is most likely a blossoming paranoia disorder that is entirely our fault, Uncle Felix requires all of our friends to come to the flat before we go out to a cafe. As we are a party of eight, I do not entirely trust that no one will blurt out something stupid that they know about one of the others that they really shouldn’t. My crush on Alexander, for example, some sexuality or another, or a case that Uncle Felix doesn’t entirely know about.

I’m still freaking out about it when the doorbell wins and Kitty, Beanie, and Lavinia walk in. “Hazel, Daisy!” Beanie shrieks, and she abandons all proper greetings to fling herself at me. 

“Beanie!” I yell, and I am swallowed up in how tall she is now. “It’s so weird to see you outside of school!”

Daisy acts irritated when Beanie gives her a violently tight hug, but I can tell from the look on her face that she enjoys it. “Hello, Assistants,” she says, when Beanie lets go, and then she raises her eyebrows at me in judgement. “So, Watson, where is Amina?”

“Ooh, you invited Amina?” Beanie asks, jumping up and down on the balls of her feet and clapping her hands. “That will be so much fun!”

With a grin cast at me, Kitty says, “I helped, Beans! It was so much fun, and when I called Amina, she was just  _ so  _ excited.”

Taking a few steps towards me, Daisy pinches my arm, hard. “Watson, you are thinking so much more independently and I would love it if it wasn’t you using it to mess with my romantic life.”

I lean over and whisper in her ear, “So you admit that you like her?”

Spots of colour appear high on her cheeks in an instant, and she scowls at me before saying, “Shut up.”

Uncle Felix slips into the entryway and says, “Hello, girls! It’s a pleasure to see you again. I’m Felix Mountfitchet, Daisy’s uncle.”

Practically swooning, Kitty giggles and says, “Hello, Mr Mountfitchet! It’s great to see you again.”

“When did you meet him before?” Lavinia questions gruffly, raising an eyebrow.

“Fallingford!” Beanie says, eager to give an answer. “When it was Daisy’s birthday and Stephen—” All of a sudden, she froze and stared at Daisy, who was looking rather pale with blinking blue eyes. “I’m sorry, Daisy.”

Uncle Felix sets a hand on Daisy’s shoulder and squeezes so hard that I can see the press of his fingers. “It’s alright, Miss Rebecca. How about we get you some tea, eh?”

Making a vague noise of disagreement, Lavinia gestures to the door. “Someone’s knocking.”

Uncle Felix raises an eyebrow at me — I burn with embarrassment — and swans from the room. 

Daisy, ignoring all propriety, rushes past Bridget and unlatches the door, opening it to George and Alexander on the other side, both smiling at us and looking vaguely damp. The heavy clouds had weighed down and opened up like a bucket poured from the heavens since Kitty, Beanie, and Lavinia arrived. Alexander looks miserably cold, while George is drenched with his hair still perfectly slicked back and his suit neat. “Hello, girls,” George greets the two of us, and Daisy offers out a prim and proper hand for a handshake.

Instead he pulls her into a rather abrupt hug, pushing a shocked noise from her chest. “George!”

“Affection from him is not  _ so _ rare!” Alexander says, and Daisy shakes his hand with a surprisingly small amount of distaste. “It’s good to see you, Daisy!”

“You too, Alexander,” she says in tones not too cool. “Hazel, come on!”

My feet move before I can recognise that I’m doing it, and then Alexander has swept me up in his arms and I find my face pressed against his chest, and his shirt is still rather damp. He smells boyish and slightly of rain, and of a cologne that I recognise as George’s from hugging his best friend. “Hazel!” he says, brightly joyous as he hugs me to his chest, his American accent coming out strongly, “it is so good to see you!”

Daisy raises her eyebrows at me when he lets go of me, holding me by my shoulders and glowing down at me. It’s the way that he used to glow at Daisy. “You too, Alexander!” I manage to stammer out as I feel myself going red.

“Boys, come and meet our dormmates,” Daisy says in a hurry, giving me a rather pointed look to let me know that it is a rather hurried way to rescue me from the sheer embarrassment of his company. The two of them turn to the girls, and I note with amusement that both Kitty and Lavnia start fixing their hair.

“Boys, meet Katherine Freebody, Rebecca Martineau, and Lavinia Temple.” She gestures to each of our dormmates in turn, and I can see George taking in how starkly  _ ordinary _ they look compared to us, Daisy being wild and determined and unladylike, and me being Chinese and heavy-set and quietly confident. “And, Assistants, meet George Mukherjee and Alexander Arcady.”

George moves first, seizing Beanie’s hand in a handshake and saying, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Rebecca. I’ve heard about you from the girls.”

“What have they told you?” she asks, shaking his hand and pushing her plait back over her shoulder. “Oh… and call me Beanie!”

“Beanie?” he questions, raising one eyebrow in a very Daisy-like way.

With notable bitterness, she says, “Beanie  _ used _ to be short.”

“ _ Right _ ,” George says with amusement. “I’ve been told about… well, your rather selfless defense of these four during the Bonfire Night Case.”

From where I’m standing, I can feel Daisy’s gaze burning past me and into the side of Alexander’s head.

“Daisy,” I hiss, and she laughs at my expression.

“I’m only teasing, Hazel.” I raised my eyebrow, and she adds, “If it had to be anyone, Hazel, I would rather it be him.”

I turn back to the boys, to see that George has moved on to shaking Lavinia’s hand. As I expected (and Daisy cynically predicted), Beanie and Alexander are getting along like a house on fire. The unabashed kindness is bubbling over from each of them, almost sparkling in the air between them as they chatter over anything from the weather to what Daisy and I are like to detect with, to instances of bravery in detection.

When Alexander finally moves on, both him and Beanie laughing, he shakes Kitty’s hand warmly and asks how she is, complimenting her hair and asking about her role in our last case with them.

“You like that they’re getting along, don’t you?” Daisy asks in mischievously impish tones, leaning into my ear and putting a hand on my shoulder. I lean my head against hers and nod.

“It’s nice, isn’t it?”

With an irritable sigh, she says, “I suppose. Alexander isn’t… all that bad.”

She tries to wriggle out of my tight embrace but I can tell that she’s pleased. “Alright, Watson, gets  _ off _ of me!”

I hear a laugh and I turn around to see Alexander watching us. “Oh! Hi, Alexander.”

“Who else are we waiting for?” he asks me, and I can barely stammer out her name.

“You’re acting odd, Hazel! What is it?”

Thankfully, George’s neverending perception swoops in to save me as he puts a hand on Alexander’s shoulder and pushes himself slightly up on tip-toe to whisper in his ear. Whatever he says, it makes Alexander turn bright red in an instant. “ _ George _ ! I  _ don’t _ like you!”

“You love me really,” he says, inspecting the speckles of rain on the sleeve of his jacket before raising one finger in the air. “Three, two, one…”

I am about to ask what on earth he’s counting down to when there’s a knock on the door, and Bridget opens it to a rather sodden Amina El Maghrabi standing there with a beaten umbrella.

“Hello, Daisy,” Amina says, and her dark eyes fix on my best friend from across the entryway. Even my eyes fixed on her make no difference; she is accosted by Amina’s presence, seemingly shaken by how much she wants to acknowledge her. “It’s great to see you out of school, you know.”

“You too, Amina!” she replies, dreadfully bold as she leans towards Amina like a plant to the sun.

With a grin, Amina rushes forward and pulls Daisy into her arms. “You’re very warm, Daisy.”

“And you’re drenched,” she replies in a shaky voice, not unlike the delicate swoon that had come into her demeanour when Martia kissed her hand. “Let’s get this coat on a radiator.”

As the tension breaks up, George introducing himself and Alexander’s bubbly personality sweeping the awkwardness away, I turn to my best friend. “Don’t like her, huh, Daisy?”

Daisy, who is standing at my side with her arm threaded through my own, jabs her free hand into my face and says, “Medieval tortures, Watson.”


End file.
